Universities spread the net far and wide

Andrew Stevenson and Jen Rosenberg

First there was sandstone; then brick and concrete; soon, perhaps, a bank of servers. Welcome to the university of the future, in which 80 per cent of students around the world learn online. Turning up to graduate would be an optional extra.

In Australia, the move is already under way. While longer-established universities continue to thumb their nose at online courses, students - particularly mature-age ones - are voting with their feet with enrolments surging at those universities with extensive online offerings.

Melissa Banek ... "The only thing missing for me personally is that networking and interaction that comes with going to lectures and tutorials." Photo: Sahlan Hayes

Next year, Australian universities will be free to enrol as many students as they can as the sector rises to the challenge set by the federal government to lift the percentage of young adults with a degree from 29 per cent to 40 per cent by 2020.

Such growth is not possible without expanding online offerings, Ross Chambers, vice-chancellor, academic, at Charles Sturt University, says. Two-thirds of CSU students study by distance, with the figure growing by 14 per cent a year.

The challenge to lift university qualifications among socially disadvantaged groups, indigenous Australians, and those living in rural and remote areas is even more dependent on better broadband services and online offerings.

In the US, online tertiary study is growing at an even faster rate, hitting 25 per cent a year. Schools, too, are being transformed with more than half of the US states now having virtual schools, according to a report released this month by the Boston Consulting Group.

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''The change is on in higher education: online course offerings are growing rapidly and there is an irreversible change that is happening in Australia,'' Larry Kamener, a senior partner of the group in Australia, says.

The Boston study, Unleashing the Potential of Technology in Education, argues that the actual impact of technology in the sector has been disappointing and has failed to lift student outcomes. Teachers are still trapped by textbooks.

University lecturers who continue to deliver uninspired performances should watch out, Kamener warns.

''The average lecturer I think will struggle. Why would you bother turning up to hear someone when there is much better content available digitally,'' he says.

The vice-chancellor of the University of New England, Jim Barber, goes further, suggesting it is time to kill off the term lecturer, with high-speed broadband set to make education more interactive and students needing to be taught how to find, appraise and apply information.

''Educators have to give up on the idea that their job is to impart information,'' he says. Instead, they will increasingly become coaches and mentors.

At UNE, more than 80 per cent of students now study off-campus and, as online resources grow, books could soon become unnecessary, even in libraries.

''To the extent that schools and universities are buildings any more, they will change dramatically, as learning moves from desks to devices,'' Barber says.

But not everyone is so convinced the change will finally come. Some, such as Greg Craven, vice-chancellor at the Australian Catholic University, have heard it sung too many times before.

''Many years ago, when I was a naive, young senior lecturer, there was this idea that e-learning would replace everything: it's much more complicated than that,'' he says.

''It's like we always think we're about to find life on other planets or the cure for cancer. It's always just around the corner.''

Nor is everyone convinced the change is all for the better. The University of Sydney continues to focus on face-to-face experience and campus life.

Associate Professor Rob Ellis, director of e-Learning and Learning Space at Sydney, says less than 10 per cent of programs at the university offer distance options.

''Our priority is to offer students the best campus-based experience possible where interaction with our active researchers shapes the nature of our engaged enquiry,'' he says. ''Distance education is likely to remain a specialist design in niche areas for the university.''

Definitely not at Macquarie. It offered a fully online Bachelor of Arts in 2003 and 2000 people signed up. This year that's risen to 12,000, most of whom live in urban areas. They live near universities but study online for the convenience, Andrew Burrell, the director of the Centre for Open Education at Macquarie University, says.

Internationally, online study will soon overtake on-campus education, according to Burrell, who cites projections that more than 80 per cent of students will earn their degree online within 25 years.

Will employers care? Unsurprisingly, those offering online courses say no. In their favour is the fact that their students are generally older and often already working. A degree or an extra qualification only makes them more employable.

''While this method of learning is not suited to all, it is an important offering that provides access to tertiary education to a range of people; including those in remote areas, people who are highly mobile and existing workers not able to attend an institution,'' she says.

''It is important to also note that online qualifications can be effectively integrated into actual work. In this context, they can add an even greater value to employers.''

The change so far unleashed - certain to pick up pace when the national broadband network cuts prices and allows courses with far more interaction - won't be stopped.

More courses will be offered, with the potential for them to be better taught, with video conferencing that works and the ability for teachers to use continuous low-stakes tests to check whether students are actually learning.

But even advocates such as Chambers concede the importance of people relating to other people.

''I think the challenge for universities is not say: 'If you don't have a campus experience you've missed out', it's to try and build a broader sense of participating in an online community around the learning experience,'' he says.

Additional reporting by Aaron Cook

Online or off - it's your ability that counts

Melissa Banek, 34, is well placed to judge how employers rate online degrees - and will be hoping she is right in thinking it does not matter at all how you study.

Banek works in human resources and, while living in Mosman, is completing her masters from Deakin University in Victoria.

''From my perspective in HR, there's no difference as to whether someone has done a degree on-campus or off-campus. It's just whether or not they've applied themselves and got the knowledge and expertise,'' she said.

''I would have no idea [how someone studied]. I don't look that far and I would not see it hindering a prospective opportunity with another employer.''

The challenge in distance education is making sure you create time without set class times and overcoming the lack of face-to-face contact.

''The only thing missing for me personally is that networking and interaction that comes with going to lectures and tutorials,'' Banek, who completed a Bachelor Science at the University of Sydney, said.

Banek believes the sector could be transformed by faster, more flexible online communications.

''The technology remains cumbersome. I think that once you get a handle on the clunkiness, you know how to operate it, but it does take a little while … with distance learning, you're doing it on your own with the textbook. You still have access to your lecturer, but it's via email and not interactive immediately and you can feel quite removed.''